NEW YORK—I last saw attorney Emil Bove one month ago, when he was representing his client, then-President-elect Donald Trump, at his New York state court sentencing in early January.
On Wednesday, Bove was down the street at the federal courthouse, and had a new, bigger title. He’s the acting Deputy Attorney General. But after watching Bove argue before a federal judge that the DOJ should be allowed to proceed with dropping its prosecution of New York City mayor Eric Adams, it was entirely clear: he is still Trump’s lawyer.
Bove, along with Adams defense attorney Alex Spiro, put on a show of measured intimidation in an effort to bring as quick an end as possible to the case, which had been set to go to trial in April. For Bove and Spiro, that meant attempts to block any process that might keep the case alive, allow the judge to inquire further into the circumstances of the dismissal, or subject the Trump DOJ’s motion to dismiss to further scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho for the Southern District of New York issued no ruling at the hearing, saying only at the end that he had limited discretion to proceed, but that he had not reached a conclusion on whether to inquire further into the circumstances of the motion to dismiss and into whether he would be able to appoint an amicus to oppose Adams and the government.
Bove and Spiro pushed hard throughout, attempting both to muscle an end to the matter, and to deny the clear picture that had emerged as the DOJ attempted to end the case. The acting top Manhattan federal prosecutor had resigned over Bove’s decision to end the prosecution, saying that there was the appearance of a “quid pro quo” in which the DOJ temporarily dropped the case in exchange for Adams agreeing to cooperate with Trump’s policies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the city.
Joining Bove in the courtroom was Todd Blanche, his former law partner and fellow Trump defense attorney who is awaiting Senate confirmation to assume the role of deputy attorney general. Blanche sat in the first row of a packed courtroom. Bove sat by himself at the prosecution table; two career DOJ employees who had entered appearances in the matter did not appear, leaving the acting DAG to assume the role of a line prosecutor to argue the motion.
The effect was to create the appearance of a united front before Ho: the DOJ was all in on this, along with Mayor Adams, in spite of the resignations from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.
Ho asked Bove about two arguments that he had made to dismiss the case: that the DOJ needed to consider how the prosecution impeded Adams’ ability to cooperate with federal law enforcement, and how the case blocked Adams from preparing for the upcoming New York City mayoral elections.
Bove reiterated claims that the Adams prosecution had been brought abusively, but told Ho that the court lacked authority to review that claim.
Instead, Bove said, the DOJ was already conducting a “couple of ongoing investigations” into the “actual purpose of the prosecution.”
As the hearing progressed, Bove kept trying to direct Ho to arguments that might end the case. At one point, Ho inquired about Bove’s argument that prosecuting the mayor would impede his ability to run the city and campaign in the mayoral election.
‘The fact that Mayor Adams is sitting to my left has that effect,” Bove replied. “The pendency of this motion has that effect.”
The idea that the responsibilities of public office — or the prospect of political campaigning — could serve as grounds to avoid prosecution is a complete departure from and contortion of decades of DOJ practice. Ho asked Bove whether there were any cases in which the DOJ had used that justification to drop charges against a public official; Bove said there were none, but then invoked the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss charges against Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout as part of a prisoner exchange.
At another point, Ho needled Bove about another reason he cited for dropping the case: Adams had lost his security clearance after being indicted.
After several questions, Bove said that Trump’s supposedly extensive executive abilities would allow him to bestow security clearances on any citizen, including an indicted Adams.
But Bove then threw up another reason why the prosecution should be dismissed: Adams could not speak to DOJ officials while charged by the Department, blocking him from reviewing “federal national security concerns and federal immigration concerns.” At one point, Bove alluded to “terroristic threats” for good measure.
The effect was to establish Trump as a sovereign, and Adams as his arm. That Adams supposedly could not communicate with the DOJ, Bove said at one point, “impacts national security objectives that are a core Article II power of President Trump.”
Spiro, Adams’ attorney, spoke less throughout the hearing. At one point, when Judge Ho was asking about how the motion might impact timing under the Speedy Trial Act, Spiro replied dismissively, saying that he hadn’t “given it much thought.”
“No appellate court in this country has ever upheld a district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss,” Spiro said.
Ho was only able to review documentation of Bove’s efforts within the Justice Department to dismiss the case — acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon had sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi resigning, and Bove had replied with a lengthy missive — because amicus filers had introduced it. It’s unclear if Ho will consider those documents in his decision-making; both Bove and Spiro urged him not to.
Toward the start of the hearing, Ho asked Adams a few questions about the case. Adams told the judge that there had been no threat or inducement which led him to take the deal that Bove proposed.
At one point, after he conferred with Spiro, Ho remarked that Adams was free to confer with his counsel as much as he needed.
Adams replied: “I appreciate that, because I failed my law class.”
“No appellate court in this country has ever upheld a district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss,” Spiro said.
“The fact that no court in this country has ever heard a motion as brazenly and shockingly crooked as this one is yet another reason why you are not allowed to deny our motion.”
These fuckers get away with brazen bad-faith distortions of reality, over and over, because they know our national media will never, ever call them on it.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho should throw a wrench to all this.
Bove’s face has manifested all the evil and hate within him.
I do hope Judge Ho finds enough evidence to at least bring in an amicus. This is another ridiculous example of Fat Hitler’s propensity to screw with the justice system.
Unbelievable rationale. If the President can NatSec his way into anything, there’s no other legal power base in the nation. It’s martial law, and nowt else.